title: Self-standing nanoparticle membranes and capsules.
abstract: We perform coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of self-standing nanoparticle membranes observed in recent experiments (K. E. Mueggenburg et al., Nat. Mater., 2007, 6, 656). In order to make our simulations feasible, we model 2-3 times smaller gold nanoparticles (core radius of r(core) ≈ 0.8 nm) covered with alkanethiol ligands (length of l(ligand) ≈ 0.5-2.6 nm). We study the structure, stability, and mechanical properties of these membranes and show that these characteristics are controlled by the ratio of R(LC) = l(ligand)/r(core). For R(LC) ≈ 0.6, the ligated nanoparticles form well ordered monolayers with hexagonal packing, in agreement with the experiments (R(LC) ≈ 0.44). For R(LC) ≈ 1.6, the nanoparticles form less organized multilayers, which are more stable and flexible. We show that these membranes could potentially form stable capsules for molecular storage and delivery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Petr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Král
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D053769:Nanocapsules / Q000737:chemistry*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D053769:Nanocapsules; D006046:Gold